According to an anonymous source at 9to5Mac.com, Apple and Electronics Arts (as well as other unnamed sources) are in the process of porting EA's line of iPod games to the iPhone. This latest speculation brings up a number of issues in my head.
When I look at the current lineup of EA iPod-based games (Solitare, Mahjong, Tetris, Bowling, etc) the controls for them are fairly simple, using just the iPod clickwheel and center button as the controls. I am a little skeptical about how fluid the controls will be for anything more complicated than card games and bowling. As we have seen with 3rd party games such as the NES emulator, it is possible to implement decent controls although they are not perfect. The problem is that major video game firms (with the exception of EA) would not dare enter into the iPhone-only game market for the reason that the margins are lousy. I will not pay any amount of money for ported iPod games to play on iPhone and I am positive that 99% of the people whos 3rd party apps were removed in the 1.1.1 update would agree with me. I WOULD pay for fresh, innovative, and more graphically enhanced games from companies other than EA...
Continuing with the official 3rd party app speculation, it is also being reported that Apple will be adopting T-Mobile's sidekick SDK and distribution models. To summarize, the Sidekick model involves 3rd party developers applying for a "key" from Apple, which essentially opens up the iPhone platform for app development, developers test and compile applications and submit only stable and functional concepts to Apple for for stability and compatibility testing. If Apple follows the T-Mobile model, they would at this point release the app for sale.
To me this could go either way for consumers in the sense that it could bring some first class applications to the iPhone and potentially iPod Touch platforms. The possible downside for consumers is that because Apple has the final word in what is released, we could see a slew of Stock and Weather-type iPhone widgets which are nice features, but are in essence more novelty than hardcore app.
All this means very little right now is it is pure speculation but lets just look at two different sides of this issue...
Consumers who have unofficial 3rd party apps (or who lost them in the latest update) will unlikely support anything related to this idea of buying additional apps from Apple. The general sentiment among iPhone customers is that Apple has become concerned only with money. As a side note, do all you people who believe this think that Apple Inc. is non-for-profit company??? I am not going to get into it in detail but Apple Inc. is in business for ONE SINGLE REASON....to produce the largest PROFITS possible for its SHAREHOLDERS. With that said, many people still feel hesitant about giving more money to the Cupertino-based firm with many even feeling betrayed or "gauged" by the price drop last month.
Other users who for whatever reason choose not to jailbreak and load 3rd party apps may be attracted to "official" applications. Although there are a myriad of programs that allow for simple jailbreaking, many do not feel like "de-flowering" their new devices. Still, with this target group, many will be weary of the applications....especially when you factor in that the numerous "hacking" groups will most likely release a hacked for-free version of the apps shortly after the "official" ones are released.
Truthfully...these rumors do not interest me in the LEAST....I personally have no desire to purchase games for iPhone, apps possibly, but not until they are proven to be worth the cost and more importantly if they provide me with some additionally utility that I need with my iPhone.
I am waiting until Apple releases its much delayed and highly anticipated Leopard OS which is reported to have many new UI and infrastructure updates/improvements, many of which are supposeded to be closely integrated with iPhone....
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